The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-10
SITTING ROOM AND SIDEWALKS
The Married Bellies Throw the Young
Buds in the Shade.

BuQS IN inc 0ndQe.
NEW YORK, Oct S-"Do you know there
wasn't single notable dance led by girl
in her first season in New York last win
ter?n
The speaker was ''budn who will make
her debut in that small but much talked of
circle that calls itself New York society
when the cold weather has driven the last
summer wanderers back from their country
houses TO the payements again.
"New York is bad place for debutante
now; the married bellies carry off all the
honors. That is why so many of the young
girls go abroad and stay till they are old
enough to win some attention here. There
isn't one of them who stands the ghost of a
chance against Mrs. Coleman Drayton's
gowns There's Mrs. Goelet, Mrs. Ogden
Mills, Jr., Mrs. Frederick Jones, and two or
three dozen more An 1S-year-old is nowhere
when they are about. Mrs. Willie Aston
leads the dances; if she doesn't Mrs Burke
Roche does. There might as well be no
charity balls, no Patriarchs no Junior
Patriarchs for that matter, so far IS the
younger fry are concerned, and as If the
private entertainments it's much the same
thing there. The ''buds" take what part
ners are left when the young married
women have had their choice"
1t is certainly true that to be too young is
out of style in the metropolis: Girls are
not the fashion any more. The married
bellies dance just as well, dress more richly,
and talk better; it dosn't compromise the
well-dressed young man from the bachelor
apartment which he is in no haste to desert
for Benedicts' quarters to dance attendance
upon them and take it all in all, now is the
married bellies reign. The popular unmar
ried women who queen it in the ball rooms
are, like Miss Adele Grant and Miss Wins
low, of more than one seasons standing
The debutantes-with the exception of a
younger Miss Chamberlain, Miss Wood
worth and Miss Agnes Lawrence there wont
be large number of them this winter-are
eagerly heralded; the society world is
anxious to see them, families clamor for the
privilege of chaperoning them, but after all
they are likely TO enjoy their second and
third seasons better, and to get more
desirable partners than in their first.
FASHIONS IN DANCES.
Fashions in dances change about once in
three years.
This statement, coming from one of the
oldest and best known dancing masters in
the country carried with it a certain weight
of authority
Changes in dances and in dancing are all
a matter of fashion, of course. Americans
demand novelty in everything. 1t takes
certain length of time to introduce new
dance, though, and hence the cycle is, as |
gave it to you, about three years. The first
year call preparation; that is while people
are finding out the existence of the dance
and learning to perform 1t. The second
year is execution; that is while it is popular
and all the dance programmes include 1t.
The third year is decadence; that is the last
of it. You no sooner get a good dance Than
you throw it away again."
- A nd what the Mace OF the coming
season in your cycleg
at is about the second year. This is going
to be a dancing winter. Everybody Will
dance and it will be the best year in long
time to really get new dances put upon the
floor"
"What are some of the new dances going
to be!n
''Well, the idea of having eight couples in
a set instead of four is going to take night
lily, to all appearance, and people are going
to dance in octagOnS instead of squares. The
first dance of this sort the original "Octa-
gon," is very pretty and very intricate.
The eight couples required to form it are
divided into side couples and corner couples
and they face one another, so as to make an
octagonal figure. 1t is made up of five
numbers, each having several figures, and is
very artistic dance with graceful courtesy
ing, gliding and saluting. The Octagon is
full of passing under arches of arms and
forming diagonal and parallel lines. 1t has
novel steps in it, too, and dancers take to it
because Americans hate to stand still and it
keeps all eight couples in motion at once"
The Octagon, so the Professor of the
Terpsiohorean art went on to inform me,
will relieve the strain on the intellects of the
couples who lead the german this winter,
supplying an amount of variety that will do
away with any call for improvisations ex-
ecpt where original genius comes bubbling
ND of its own accord and is not forced The
most intricate new dance that most trippers
of the light fantastic Will be introduced to
this winter is a revival of the stately old
court dances, and is dubbed the Mistletoe
Minuet 1t is complex dance, difficult
to master, amusingly solemn and very
picturesque. Only devotees will learn it, but
it Is q very graceful dance, and like the
Octagon, will go well in the german. Both
these dances take large space to do them
in properly, and it is limited that there will
be some elaborate costuming at a carnival
or two on whose list they are already set
down. There are only two new round
dances that one will hear much of this
winter, the Columbia and the American
gavotte, stirring, animated things both that
will add to the life of the ball room.
Standard time for dancing is one of the
things to be insisted on this winter. Faster,
that's too slow for us, we can't dance to that
| time" is the usual appeal to the leader of
| the orchestra or the musicians. Cant help
it, standard time, we play by the metro
nome" will be the inexorable reply when
the instruments tune up next Waltz, "a
| time. 65 measures, 1872 beats to the minute;
| polka. "a time, So measures, 1l6 BEATS
schottische A time, 50 measures, IA beats
galop, PA time, " measures, 144 beats;
mazourka, ga time, As measures, IA beats;
ouadrille and lanciers, 6-S time, So measures,
! lie beats: such is the latest decree of fate,
that is if that light-footed body, the Ameri-
can Society of Professors of Dancing, and
they have nearly all the musicians in the
country bound fast in their league. They
have decided it, they tell you how you
should dance and they know all about it.
To do the gyrating professors justice they
have reduced dancing to science III this
country. The same dance means the same
thing everywhere, is danced in the same
way and to the same time with precision
that is every season increasing.
"Americans are the best dancers in the
world.n
The sentence sounded positive. Glow
about the German waltzing and French
dancers" / ventured to inquire.
"Over there they are not progressive.
They never change They dance now just
as they danced forty years ago. In Paris
and in London, too, the dancing is what we
should call primitive. In their square dances
| only one couple move at time 1t Is first
| lady and opposite gentleman, forward and
throtIryb oil tba